Interventions for Survivors of Traumatic Sexual Abuse

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Sexual trauma is different for each individual who survives it. Some individuals experience trauma as children, whereas others are adult survivors. Some clients may be very communicative about their trauma, while others may have difficulty talking about it at all. Helping professionals who work with traumatic sexual abuse survivors must take these individual differences into consideration as they choose and implement interventions.

Consider the following case study and identify intervention strategies appropriate for your role and responsibilities as a helping professional.

The Case of Beth and Don

Beth has been married to Don for 3 years. Beth and Don are seeking couples counseling because the couple wants to start to try to have children, but their lack of sexual relationship threatens to make that an impossible dream. Beth and Don admit that they have never consummated their relationship.

Don has known since early in the couple’s dating relationship that Beth was raped by a stranger about 6 months before they started dating. Since that time, she has been unable to even think about having sex without having a panic attack and crying. Beth appreciates that Don has been extremely patient and understanding as she has undergone extensive therapy to work on her posttraumatic stress disorder (diagnosed by her individual psychotherapist). However, she admits that she is afraid that he will leave her because she is “not willing to have sex with him right now.”

Beth and Don both make clear that having children is an important goal of theirs. Beth says, “I have always wanted to be a mother. I know that having sex is a necessary step to making that happen. It’s killing me that I’ve still not been able to have sex with Don. I just want to get over this once and for all and be able to have sex like a normal couple and have kids, too.”

Post an analysis of how Beth’s traumatic sexual history may be impacting her marriage. Identify an intervention that you would choose to assist Beth and Don. In your rationale, discuss the underlying theory of the intervention and how it will address the couple’s intimacy problem

Sample Solution

of the suspect: the more nervous or anxious he looks, the guiltier he seems according to this method. According to the research results of Meissner et al. (2014), information-gathering is better at obtaining a confession compared with direct questioning, but that the accusatorial approach increases both true and false confessions.

Results of the experiments by Perillo and Kassin (2011) indicate that bluffing has the same effects as the presentation of false evidence. They also imply that these confessions made because of bluffing are not likely to be detected by the interrogators of judges.

The well-known ‘Reid technique’ is often used during an interrogation. It’s a method where the police will use false evidence and reduce the anxiety associated with confessing by misleading the individual and making him believe he will get mercy, even when it’s not directly promised. This is a minimization strategy. The essence of this technique is that the suspect will make a rational cost-benefit analysis. The problem comes forth when false evidence is shown: if the innocent suspect thinks he will be sentenced anyway, making a confession will seem to have a better outcome than denying it. This way he can maybe get a reduced sentence because he was cooperative during the process. We can assume that this is what Roman Zadorov did in the Tair Rada-case.
Klaver et al. (2008) conducted experiments about minimization and maximization strategies. Participants had the highest false confession rates in the condition where they got interrogated with minimization techniques and where the plausibility of the accusations was very high.
Solution?
These researches prove the dangers of using some methods and that they deserve attention. An officer, a judge or a jury should always keep the possibility of a false confession in mind when making a decision. A solution to limit the effects could be using the minimization and maximization strategies mixed in the “good cop/bad cop” tactic. Different approaches to discover the truth should be used together instead of only using the Reid technique or the accusatorial approach, especially if the interrogated person is a minor or someone with mental issues. Also asking questions about concealed information is of

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